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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1711.PDF
522 FLIGHT International, 19 September 1963 Missiles and Spaceflight Four major facilities make up the Arnold Engineering Development Center. In the fore ground, the von Kdrman gas-dynamics facility for model tests at from 1,000 to 20,000 m.p.h. at altitudes up to 250,000ft. Right, centre, the Rocket Test Facility, where propulsion systems may be run in an environment simu lating speeds over 3,000 m.p.h. and altitudes up to 450,000ft. Left, centre, the Propulsion Wind Tunnel, with speed limits of 400 and 3,500 m.p.h. and maximum altitude of over 200,000ft. The Aerospace Environmental Facility, now under construction, will test full- scale spacecraft up to heights of 300 miles AEDC TURNS TO SPACE TESTING of materials and the aerodynamic effect of different shapes at speeds greater than Mach 20, and at altitudes ranging up to 50 miles, soon will become a part of the regular business of Arnold Engineering Development Center, one of six major US Air Force research and development facilities. Tucked away in the Tennessee hills near the small town of Tullahoma, AEDC has long been the largest aircraft-engine test establishment known to exist anywhere. It has now begun a multi-million-dollar programme to enable its facilities to test manned vehicles to be flown in space. Maj-Gen William L. Rogers, AEDC Commander, recently called attention to the need for better test facilities for space systems in these words: "Each succeeding system is more complex, more expensive and requires more time to produce—from concept to launch pad—than its predecessor. Consequently, all systems must be checked out as thoroughly as possible in flight-simulation laboratories on the ground before attempts are made to flight-test them or send them on their intended mission." Newest facility at AEDC for such testing is the 1,000ft Hyper- velocity Range (G), now undergoing its own pre-operational testing. It is expected this new range, which is but one of 14 wind tunnels, impact ranges and aeroballistic ranges in AEDC's von Karman Gas Dynamics Facility, will be ready to test vehicles, models and other projectiles in January 1964. "The idea behind ballistic-range testing is basically quite simple." says Maj-Gen Rogers. "You fire a model in free flight through the desired environment, instead of moving the environment past a stationary model as in conventional wind-tunnel testing. This has a number of advantages. One is that it is easier to duplicate the flight conditions to be encountered during re-entry of the Earth's atmosphere than it is in a wind tunnel. Temperature and pressure are particularly important, and can best be reproduced in a ballistic range."' Another area that lends itself to easier study in a ballistic range is the investigation of the luminous, radio-blanketing sheath of hot gas that surrounds a re-entering vehicle. Models fired down Hypervelocity Range (G) at full speed will be fitted with tiny radio transmitters, which will telemeter information about pressure and temperature on the surface of the model to receiving stations outside the ranges. The first flight tests will be at relatively low speed, and these will be recorded in part by a camera that can expose 1,400,000 frames per second. Speeds will build up to 20,000ft/sec early in 1964, and development work is underway to propel models downrange at speeds near 30,000ft/sec. The two-stage range consists of a breech, a pump section, high speed launch tube, and a downrange flight tube, 1,000ft long- To load the range, the pump tube or mid-section of the launcher is moved to one side. The test model, encased in a sabot, is inserted into the breech end of the launch tube, and a plastic piston is Free-fight tests ofmodeh at A^fj numbers up to 20, under re-envj conditions at simulated adituo^ up to 50 miles, are now being «" ducted with the AEDCs W* velocity Range (G). The >,0W downrange tube (left) Is evocM^ during a firing, and in this draWtH the pump tube of the t«o-M launcher has been withdrawn ncner nas oeen ""•":„./-j one side to permit the in*/"0"*, projectile into the hifMP* section
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